Integrating Behavioral Health, Primary Care can Save Money

The Sustaining Healthcare Across Integrated Primary Care Efforts (SHAPE) demonstration, a Colorado project that integrated behavioral health services into primary care settings, saved about $1.08 million in net cost savings for Medicare, Medicaid and dual-eligible patients, according to a new report in Translational Behavioral Medicine.

Using Telehealth, mHealth Technology to Help Seniors Age in Place

From innovative connected care platforms to the Internet of Things, telehealth is showing today’s seniors (and tomorrow’s soon-to-be seniors) how they can live out their golden years in their own homes. The projected surge in Baby Boomer seniors, combined with an overtaxed healthcare system running short on doctors and nurses, is helping to put the focus on telehealth and mHealth solutions that improve care coordination and management.

MGMA Calls for CMS to Enforce Health Plans’ HIPAA Compliance

While physician practices can complain about a health plan’s failure to comply with HIPAA and Affordable Care Act requirements, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has yet to issue a single enforcement fine. In a letter sent to CMS Wednesday, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) urged CMS to step up enforcement of HIPAA and ACA administrative simplification requirements related to mandated transactions, operating rules, national identifiers and code sets.

Rural Hospital Transitional Care Program Reduces Medicare Spending

CMS seeks to identify ways to deliver better healthcare, improve health, and lower costs for beneficiaries of its programs, particularly those with the highest healthcare needs. One promising approach toward achieving this goal is transitional care, which encompasses a range of services provided to patients as they transfer across settings or levels of care to improve outcomes and avoid preventable hospitalizations, readmissions, and emergency department (ED) visits.